Report on the cities and buildings of ancient Rome. Ancient landmarks of Rome

The chapter "Building materials, construction equipment, structures" of the subsection "Architecture of the Roman Republic" of the section "Architecture Ancient rome"From the book" General history of architecture. Volume II. Architecture of the Ancient World (Greece and Rome) "edited by B.P. Mikhailova.

Stone was the main building material in a mountainous country, rich in various varieties and volcanic rocks. The most convenient for processing were varieties of soft tuff - gray, yellowish or brownish. Hard limestone, travertine, was highly valued, and it was used extremely economically during almost the entire period of the republic. It was used by architects only in places of the greatest load of the building in the corner parts and in those details where porous tuff, which was easily weathered, was inappropriate. Outside, stone buildings were often covered with a light layer of knocking. Mostly religious and public buildings and engineering structures were erected from stone. The dwellings were built from raw bricks. From the end of the II century. fired bricks of various shapes came into use. Column trunks were laid out of shaped round or pentagonal bricks (Fig. 1). By the end of the 1st century. BC. in the walls of the baths, hollow brick blocks were used to construct a heating system in which hot air circulated (Fig. 2).

At the end of the republican period, white marble, both local and imported from Greece, began to be used to decorate temples, public buildings and wealthy dwellings.

V construction art and the methods of stone processing, the Etruscans had a well-known influence on the Romans. Remains of the oldest Roman buildings are made of large stones of irregular shape. In addition to polygonal masonry, quadra masonry was also developed early. For the period of the V-III centuries. BC NS. The Romans improved the construction technique by developing the so-called "normal" masonry of blocks in the form of a parallelepiped of different sizes (on average 60X60X120 cm). Several methods of this masonry were used: from one spoonful of rows of blocks; from spoons with sparse pokes; from alternating rows of spoons and pokes, as well as observing rhythmic alternation in each row of spoons and spoons (Fig. 3).

By the III century. BC. Under the influence of the Greeks, the processing of the outer side of the blocks improved and various methods of rustication were developed. Simple cranes were used to lift and move heavy stone blocks at construction sites (Fig. 4).

In addition to the post-and-beam system, a false arch and a false vault were used in the structures. By the end of the III century. BC. the emergence of Roman concrete, which opened up tremendous opportunities in construction, belongs to.

The development of Roman concrete began with the use of lime mortar in rubble masonry. A similar construction technique was widespread in Hellenistic times. The difference between Roman concrete and ordinary lime mortars is that instead of sand, pozzolans were used in it - volcanic sands, named after the place of extraction (the city of Pozzuoli - ancient Puteoli). The use of pozzolanas instead of sand in mortar was due to the lack of good sands in this part of Italy. Pozzolanas have proven to be the best astringent in mortar because they give it water resistance, strength and quick setting. Initially, concrete was only used to fill the space between the hewn stone walls. The dimensions of the stones laid in concrete gradually decreased, the mixture became more and more homogeneous and the concrete thus turned into an independent construction material although the stone cladding of the outer surfaces was preserved. The original surface of the wall consisted of small irregularly shaped stones connected to the core of the wall and to each other with concrete mortar. This is the so-called wrong facing - incert (opus incertum). Gradually there appears (from the 90s of the 1st century BC) a tendency to give stones an ever more regular shape and, finally, from the middle of the 1st century BC. BC. reticulat is used - mesh masonry (opus reticulatum), in which the outer surface of a concrete wall is revetted with small, carefully laid pyramidal stones. Their flat bases go out and form a mesh pattern, and their pointed ends are immersed in the concrete core of the wall (Fig. 5). The corners of the walls and lintels of the openings were formed by masonry from large blocks. Samples of early concrete technology have come down to us in small numbers. This is due to the fact that initially concrete was used mainly not in monumental buildings, but in dwellings and small structures, for which a quickly obtained and inexpensive wall material was needed. The concrete technique also had the advantage that it required a much smaller number of skilled construction workers and allowed the widespread use of slave labor.

In parallel, there was the development of arched-vaulted structures, which were used in the architecture of the ancient East, sometimes found in Greece (Priene, Pergamum, etc.). The question of whether the arched-vaulted structures were brought into the architecture of Rome from outside or independently invented by Roman architects cannot be considered finally solved at the present time.

The first appearance of the wedge arch in Rome dates back to the 4th century. BC. In the III-II centuries. BC. the number of arched-vaulted structures is increasing, especially since the end of the II century. BC.

The combination of concrete technology and arched-vaulted structures, which gave unprecedented opportunities, had a huge impact on the development of Roman architecture. Only with the help of such construction techniques it was possible to create such outstanding architectural structures as the Roman aqueducts, the Colosseum and the Pantheon.

The first monumental structure that has come down to us in this new form of technology is the portico of the Emilia, which was a huge grain warehouse in Emporia (the port of Rome downstream of the Tiber). Major trading operations were carried out here. Originally Emporium was a simple unloading area, and the portico of Emiliev was a temporary structure. In 174 BC. the building of the portico was built (Fig. 6). It was a large rectangular building stretched along the embankment (487X60 m), divided inside into 50 short transverse naves by 49 rows of pillars. The building rose in steps from the banks of the Tiber, and each nave was covered with a stepped cylindrical vault with a span of 8.3 m. On the hewn tuff façade, each nave had a corresponding section, separated from the neighboring ones by pilasters. Each nave is expressed on the façade: at the bottom with a large arched span, at the top with two smaller windows, also with a semicircular end. The walls of the building are made of gray concrete very good quality, their surface is lined with incert; the corners of the building and wedge-shaped arches above the door and window openings are made of rectangular blocks of the same material. The Emiliev portico was an outstanding monument of the early Roman art of building.

Here, for the first time in a building of such a grandiose scale, the fusion of the vaulted-arch principle of structures with concrete technology was achieved. Such a developed construction probably indicates a long preceding evolution.

The purpose of the building was in keeping with the simplicity of its forms. Repetition of one standard element on the facade 50 times gave the building a scale and emphasized the utility of its purpose.

Such huge structures were carried out in an extremely short time. The grandiose Colosseum was built in five years, and the aqueducts of 100 kilometers or more, together with substructures and bridges “in the places where they crossed river valleys, the Romans managed to build in two or three years (the term of office of aedil, the head of construction, elected by the Senate). Construction was usually tendered and carried out by contractors who were interested in the best organization of the whole, skillfully combining the labor of a huge mass of unskilled slaves and a small number of experienced building architects. Therefore, when designing, the typification of the main structural elements, the multiplicity of their sizes by foot and modularity were widely used, which made it possible to divide the work into identical simple operations. The organization of labor on Roman construction sites was very high.

The Roman state goes through a difficult path of development. It first conquered Italy (V-III centuries BC), then Carthage (II century BC) and, finally, Greece (II century BC).

The architecture of Ancient Rome changed markedly throughout the existence of this mighty state.

Many features formed the basis of Roman art. The predecessors of the Romans were the Etruscans. In the middle of the first millennium, they already had their own culture. Etruscan temples are similar to the Greek peripteres, but the front facade is more emphasized in them: in front of the entrance there is a platform with columns, and a multi-stage staircase leads to it. When erecting gates, the Etruscans often use a semicircular arch, which the Greeks almost did not know. Their houses had a room in the center with an open square hole in the roof in the middle and walls black with soot. Apparently there was a hearth. This gave reason to call this room an atrium (from the word "ater" - "black").

Atrium - a room with a hole in the roof

In culture, the official state trend of a Hellenized society and folk tastes dating back to the Italic past collide.

Generally, Roman state isolated, opposed to a private person. It was famous for its management system and law.

The army was the backbone of world power. The supreme power was concentrated in the hands of the generals, who had little regard for the national and national interests, and the cities were built on the model of camps.

According to the views of Vitruvius (the treatise was written in 27-25 BC), architecture falls into two categories: construction and proportions (the ratios of individual parts of the building serve as its basis). And the aesthetic principle is only in the order, the columns attached to the structures.

In the era of Augustus (30 BC - 14 AD), such architectural monuments as the "square house" in Nimes (South France) or the Temple of Fortune Virilis, belonging to the type of pseudo-peripter, were built. The pseudo-peripter is similar to the peripter, but the cella is pushed back a little. The temple is placed on a high podium; a wide staircase leads to its entrance (this determines the similarity of the pseudo-peripter with Etruscan temples). Only in the Roman temple are the classical forms of the order more strictly observed: fluted columns, Ionian capitals, entablature.

Maison Carré "Square House" in Nimes (France). 1st century BC NS.

Temple of Fortune Virilis. 1st century BC NS.

Types of dwellings of wealthy townspeople

The uniqueness of Roman architecture resonated even more strongly in a new type of dwelling in the spirit of eclecticism: the Italian atrium and the Hellenistic peristyle. The richest Pompeian buildings, such as the houses of Panza, Faun, Loreus Tiburtin, Vettiev, belong to this type. The peristyle served more as a decoration for a rich estate than as a place for the diverse life of its inhabitants, as it was in the houses of Greece.

In contrast to the Greek dwelling, all the premises were lined up in a strict order on the sides of its main axis.

Atrium

Peristyle of the house of the Vettii, view from the side of the large triclinium.

Portico and garden in the house of Lorey Tiburtin

House of the Faun (Villa of Publius Sulla). Present time

House of the Faun (Villa of Publius Sulla). It was like this before

Villa of Publius Sulla (House of the Faun). Inner garden with peristyle and Ionic order

The Pompeian villas are enchanting with the high perfection of the applied arts. But a lot of vanity and tasteless luxury slips there: painting the walls with copies of the famous Greek paintings of the 4th century, imitating Egyptian flat decorations, or, conversely, creating a deceptive impression of windows.

The era of Augustus is characterized by stylization and eclecticism. TO the best monuments this time belongs to the Altar of Peace on the forum. The difference between the relief is immediately striking: the figures are placed in several plans, which makes them picturesque, but between the figures one does not feel space, air, light environment, as in Hellenistic reliefs.

The Altar of Peace, built in honor of the Goddess of Peace. Indoor museum.

Relief of one of the walls of the altar

The classical current under Augustus was the main one, but not the only one. In the II century. BC. supporters of the Old Testament antiquity opposed the imitation of the Greeks.

Engineering structures. Aqueducts

Among the Roman monuments, there is a large section devoted to engineering structures. Thus, many elements of the improvement of cities appeared: the paved Appian Way, the aqueduct, the aqueduct.

The Garde Bridge at Nimes Pont du Gard

Pompeii. Italy

Rome

Lead plumbing

Forum

Art becomes, in the hands of sovereigns, a means of strengthening its authority. Hence the spectacular nature architectural structures, a large scale of construction, an addiction to huge sizes. In Roman architecture, there was more shameless demagoguery than genuine humanism and a sense of beauty.

The most magnificent type of building was the forum. Every emperor strove to immortalize himself with such a structure.

The forum of Emperor Trajan reaches almost the size of the Athenian acropolis. But in their design, the acropolis and the forum are profoundly different. The prim order, the addiction to strict symmetry, are expressed on a huge scale.

Forum of Emperor Trajan. Italy

The Roman builders operated not with volumes, like the builders of the Athenian acropolis, but with open interiors, within which small volumes stood out (columns and temples). This increased role of the interior characterizes the Roman forum as a stepping stone historical significance in the development of world architecture.

Forum, in the center - the columns of the Temple of Saturn, behind them the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus

The photo on the left shows the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, the largest building ever built on the forum in 312.

The Temple of Peace, also known as Forum of Vespasian (Latin: Forum Vespasiani), was built in Rome in 71 AD. NS.

Tabularia building (State Archives) at the Forum, 78 BC NS. - the earliest surviving structure, in which the system of the Roman architecture of the cell was applied, which combined two opposite design principles - a girder and a vaulted structure.

Urban planning

Roman cities like Ostia in Italy or Timgrad (in Africa), in the strict correctness of their plan, resemble military camps. Straight streets are lined with rows of columns that accompany any movement in the city. The streets end with huge triumphal arches. Living in such a city meant always feeling like a soldier, being in a state of mobilization.

Timgrad is an ancient Roman city in North Africa located on the territory of modern Algeria. A.D. 100 NS.

Triumphal arches

Triumphal arches were a new type of Roman architecture. One of the best is the Arch of Titus. The arches were erected in order to serve as a memory of victories among generations. In the construction of this arch, there are two types of order: one implied - on which rests a semicircular arch, separated from it by a cornice; another order, marked by mighty semi-columns, is placed on a high podium and gives the whole architecture the character of pompous solemnity. Both orders penetrate each other; the cornice of the first one merges with the cornice of the niches. For the first time in the history of architecture, a building is formed from the relationship of two systems.

The Romans' addiction to the impression of heaviness and strength is reflected in the arch of Titus in the huge entablature and attic. The harsh shadows of the cornice add tension and strength to the architectural forms.

Amphitheaters

Amphitheaters served as an arena for entertaining and spectacular performances for the crowded crowd: gladiator performances, fist competitions. Unlike the Greek theaters, they did not provide high artistic impressions. For example, the Colosseum building, which had 80 exits, and this allowed spectators to quickly fill the rows and just as quickly get out. Inside, the Colosseum makes an irresistible impression with its clarity and simplicity of forms. From the outside, it was decorated with statues. The entire Colosseum expressed restraint, at the same time with impressiveness. For this, its three open tiers are crowned with a fourth, more massive one, dissected only by flat pilasters.

Colosseum (Flavian amphitheater) today. Year of construction -80 n. NS.

The original appearance of the Colosseum

Colosseum inside

In the construction of the Pantheon, all the centuries-old experience of Roman construction was used: its double walls with rubble mass inside, unloading arches, a dome with a diameter and height of 42 m.An architecture did not know such a huge artistically designed space before. The special strength of the Pantheon lies in the simplicity and integrity of its architectural compositions. It does not have a complex gradation of scales, an increase in features, which give increased expressiveness.

Thermes

The needs of urban life were created in the middle of the 1st century. AD a new type of buildings - thermae. These buildings responded to a variety of needs, from body culture to mental nourishment and solitary contemplation. Outside, the baths had an unremarkable appearance. The main thing in them is. With a large variety of plan forms, the builders subordinated them to symmetry. The walls were clad in marble - red, pink, purple or pale green.

Ruins of the baths of the emperor Caracalla (Antonin baths). III century (212-217 years)

The history of ancient art ends with Roman art.

The architecture of the Roman Empire in the ruins of the Roman Forum.

The conquest of Greece brought Rome a new perspective on culture and art. However, Roman architecture not only copied Greek, but also made its own contribution to the development of architecture. Ancient Roman architecture in its development also absorbed the culture of building the peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, Ancient Germany, Gaul and others, conquered by the empire. Rome adopted a lot from the art of the Etruscans, bearers of a highly developed culture, thanks to the influence of which some constructive approaches to construction and engineering structures appeared. The beginning of the development of Roman architecture dates back to the 6-1 century. BC. At the beginning of this period, Rome was a small city, and its architecture was influenced by the culture of the Etruscans - the Italic tribes. They borrowed arches and vaults with domes. In those days, powerful defensive structures were created, for example, the Servius wall (4th century BC). Up to 3 c. BC. in Roman architecture, there were mainly wooden structures with terracotta ornaments. Up to 2 c. BC. in Rome, local marble had not yet been mined, and temples were built from volcanic tuff. Soft tuff arched vaults replaced the strong beams used in Greek buildings and served as load-bearing structural elements. The walls were decorated with plaster reliefs. The development of technologies for obtaining fired bricks belongs to this period, a frame was erected from it, and the cladding was made of tuff. On Capitol Hill in 509 BC a temple was erected with three cells of Jupiter, Juno, Minerva. The ridge of the pediment was decorated with a terracotta quadriga by the sculptor Vulka. Later, the temple was rebuilt several times using columns from Greek temples.

Temple of Jupiter Capitoline in Rome and elements of the order in temples in different cities of the era of Ancient Rome.

In the 2nd - 1st centuries. BC. in Roman architecture, they began to use a new plastic material - concrete. Vaulted structures are used in construction. At this time, they began to erect buildings for courts, trade, amphitheaters, circuses, baths, libraries, markets. The creation of the first triumphal arches, warehouses (the portico of Emiliev - 2nd century BC) dates back to that period. Chanceries and Archives appeared (Tabularia. 80s of the 1st century BC). Such rapid construction and the emergence of buildings for various purposes is caused by the expanding expansion, the seizure of territories, the increase in the size of the state and the need for strict regulation of the controlled territories.

Tabularia in Rome.

By the end of the 1st century. AD formed the Roman Empire with sole power. The reign of Emperor Augustus gave birth to "August classicism" in the architecture of the Roman Empire, which later became the basis for European architecture. At this time, they began to develop "Lunskoy", then Carrara marble.Roman architecture of that period was guided by the works of Phidias in Ancient Greece... Instead of houses made of raw wood and wood, the first multi-storey buildings appeared, houses, mansions of aristocrats, which were built of fired brick and concrete and faced with marble. The city was adorned with the villas of Campagna, palaces decorated with porticoes, columns, pediments, rich sculptural decor. The stucco fountains were combined with the greenery of the gardens. The Roman Forum appeared, around which public buildings and temples were erected. At the Roman Forum, the Corinthian columns of the temple of Castor and Polux, 12.5 m high, still stand.

Columns of the Temple of Castor and Polux in Rome.

The plundered wealth from the conquered countries caused the rise of Roman architecture, which was intended to highlight the greatness of the empire. The structures emphasized their scale, monumentality and power. The buildings were richly decorated. In the antique style, not only temples and palaces were erected, but also baths, bridges, theaters, aqueducts. As a basis, Greek orders were used, of which the Corinthian order was given priority, as well as a new composite one, created as a mixture of ancient Greek ones. However, in the architecture of the Roman Empire, the elements of the order were used mainly as decorative, in contrast to Ancient Greece, where all parts of the order system carried a certain load and were part of the structure. In the 1st century. BC. not only in Rome, but also in provincial towns beautiful architectural complexes as, for example, in Pompeii. Emperor Nero gave Roman architecture a new look, destroying several quarters of the city, on the site of which the "Golden House" was built.

Ruins of the Golden House of Nero in Rome.

During the reign of the Flavians and Trajan (late 1st-early 2nd centuries AD), large architectural complexes were built. In conquered Athens, Hadrian erected a temple to Olympian Zeus in 135 AD. (reconstructed in 307). Under Hadrian (125), the Pantheon began to be erected - a striking structure of the architecture of the Roman Empire, which has survived to this day. The pantheon was created from volumes of a strict geometric shape: a cylindrical rotunda, a hemispherical dome, a portico with two rows of columns in the form of a parallelepiped. A hole has been made on the dome through which the interior of the temple is illuminated. This work clearly displays the proportions: the diameter of the rotunda is equal to the height of the structure. The height of the dome is equal to half of the conditional sphere, which could be inscribed into the temple structure. In the decoration of the Pantheon: marble slabs of the lower tier and plaster on the upper tiers. The roof was covered with bronze tiles. The Pantheon has become a model for many buildings of European architecture from different historical eras.

Top view of the Roman Pantheon.

At the end of the 3rd century. AD one of the most important structures in the architecture of the Roman Empire was the defensive wall of Aurelian. Emperor Diocletian (3-4 centuries AD) made Salona his residence and practically did not live in Rome. A well-fortified palace complex with access to the sea was built in the Salon. At this time, the architecture of the Roman Empire was distinguished by austerity, clarity and less decoration. The late period (up to the end of the 2nd century) of the development of Roman architecture began during the reign of Hadrian and during the reign of Antoninus Pius. These were the years of fierce wars, conspiracies, political assassinations, uprisings, as well as the invasion of the plague. In those days, triumphal arches were not erected, but many residential buildings and villas were being built. The Roman architecture of the late Antonines was distinguished by a large amount of decoration. This period includes the Temple of Hadrian, the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina at the Roman Forum, the columns of Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, richly decorated with bas-reliefs.

Temple of Antoninus and Faustina at the Roman Forum (141 BC).

With the coming to power of Emperor Constantine and after 313, with the official recognition of the Christian religion as the main one on the territory of the Roman Empire, ancient orders were used for the construction of temples. The capital was moved to what was once Greek Byzantium, which was named Constantinople. Rome is losing its central importance, and ancient art, moving away from its center, gradually acquires a formal character, gradually developing into medieval styles.

Temple of St. Sophia in Constantinople. Built under Emperor Constantine. 324-337

Roman architecture of the 3rd century AD more and more exposed to the influence of Christianity, however, the order system was still used in the construction of temples and public buildings: large entrance stairs, multi-column porticoes, podiums, high wall decor. In the era of the dominate (284-305 AD), the appearance of Roman architecture changed: the amount of decoration decreased, the clarity of volumes and proportions decreased. At this time, techniques appeared that were then used in Byzantine architecture: a combination of stone and brick, mosaics in decoration. For example, the Temple of Jupiter was built of white stone, brick, colored marble was used for facing, the surfaces were covered with plaster, mosaics, plaster stucco. At the same time, the art of stone carving was fading away: the stucco molding became coarser and less detailed. The developing Byzantine art used the architectural traditions of the Roman Empire and Ancient Greece, combining them with oriental motives. During the 5th century. on the basis of these tendencies of Roman architecture, European architecture began to form, which brought great works to world architecture. Until now, many of the elements of Roman architecture are used in the construction of buildings in historical styles. And with the advent of artificial materials that imitate natural ones, such as, for example, polyurethane, such construction has become more democratic, reducing the cost and the need for large labor costs.

The facade of an apartment building appearance resembles ancient Roman buildings.

Roman! You learn to rule the nations sovereignly. This is your art! - to impose the conditions of peace. Mercy to the submissive to show and humble the arrogant by war.

Ancient Rome. Hundreds of articles and books have been written about him. And this is not surprising, since there are few states that would have left such a bright mark in the history of world civilization and bequeathed to their descendants such a huge cultural heritage... Its significance as a great treasury of knowledge that moves humanity forward is truly enormous.

It is not surprising that our generation is increasingly turning to Ancient Rome, while not only to the history of culture, architecture, law and military affairs, but also to the history of its technology, in particular the technique and technology of construction production, where much attention was paid to concrete construction ...

Concrete could develop and become widespread only in such a strong and huge state as was Ancient Rome with its large volumes of construction work, including the construction of thousands of amphitheaters, stadiums, thermal baths, powerful fortress walls or the famous Roman roads stretching for a thousand kilometers across the whole country and beyond. The emergence of Roman concrete reflected the growing needs and technical capabilities of ancient society. Therefore, in order to better understand their influence on the development of concrete, it is necessary to briefly get acquainted with the social system of Ancient Rome, its politics, including construction and economics.

The growth and development of Ancient Rome was not only rapid, but also unparalleled. Born in the form of a small military settlement on the Palatine (One of the 7 hills on which Rome arose) in the middle of the VIII century. BC e., it gradually turned into a political and Cultural Center the entire ancient world. Its small originally territory has grown over the centuries into a huge and powerful empire with hundreds of millions of inhabitants.

The borders of Rome expanded - initially at the expense of the territory of Italy, and then neighboring countries... Foreign policy was characterized by continuous wars and was based on the famous divide and conquer principle.

In the 60s of the III century. BC NS. the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage begin. With interruptions, they have been going on for over a hundred years. After the fall of Carthage (146 BC), when the city was burnt and destroyed by the decision of the Roman Senate, Rome became the most powerful power in the entire vast territory from Egypt and Asia Minor to the British Isles. Countless riches and tens of thousands of slaves flock to it, whose labor becomes the basis of the state system, a stronghold of its power for many years. Such a policy required the construction of roads, bridges, water pipes and other engineering structures, demanded even more gold and slaves.

However, along with the slaves, sharp social contradictions came to Rome, which often exploded in uprisings against the oppressors. When they grew to such an extent that they passed into civil wars, the mighty Roman republic staggered and, like an old building, gave its first deep crack.

There was an urgent need for the restructuring of the state system, and it happened, bringing such outstanding commanders as Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Caesar to the crest of the political wave. Antony and Octavian. The latter, as you know, opens with his reign a new stage in the history of the ancient Roman state.

Roman construction methods: Walls. A method of constructing capital walls in Roman buildings. The composition of the masonry mortar. Mortar vaults: Arrays and fixings. Akhurny brick skeleton. The scheme of the masonry of the vaults. The main types of mortar vault. Supports of the vaults. Wooden parts and small construction details. Wooden structure: Roman rafters. Farms with tightening. Wooden floors of Ancient Rome. The rafters of the Pantheon. Bridge trusses. Use of metal for farms. Roof. Lightweight building structures. Division of labor in the Roman construction site. External decoration of buildings and structures of Ancient Rome.

Considered architectural objects of Ancient Rome: Arch of the Pantheon. Baths of Agrippa. Halls of the Baths of Diocletian and Caracalla. Amphitheater in Capua. Aqueduct at Frejus. Amphitheater in Senta. Aqueduct at Eleusis. Propylaea Appius. Basilica of Maxentius. Church of St. Peter. Basilica of Trajan. Basilica of Fano. Caesar's Bridge on the Rhine. Trajan's Bridge on the Danube. Tomb of the Julians at Saint-Remy.

From Greek architecture, which is, as it were, a pure cult of the idea of ​​harmony and beauty, we are moving on to architecture, which is essentially utilitarian in nature. For the Romans, architecture turns into a function of omnipotent power, for which the construction of public buildings is a means of strengthening this power. The Romans build in order to assimilate the conquered nations, turning them into slaves. Greek architecture comes to light in temples, Roman architecture in baths and amphitheaters.

Building methods testify to an organizational genius who has limitless resources and knows how to use them. Roman architecture is the ability to organize an unlimited labor force placed at their disposal by conquest. The essence of their methods can be summed up in two words: these are techniques that require nothing but physical strength. The body of buildings turns into an array of rubble and mortar, that is, into an erected monolith, or a kind of artificial rock.

These are the monuments of the empire; but before reaching such a deliberate simplicity, Roman architecture undergoes a series of changes corresponding to the influences acting on society as a whole: it is Etruscan during the period of Etruscan civilization associated with the names of the ancient kings; relations with the Greek colonies in Lucania then leave an indelible Greek imprint on it. But it finally masters its techniques only with the approach of the era of the emperors and at the first direct contact with Asia. However, Rome, even at that time, is wary of giving its methods an official character and distributing them in full in all countries absorbed by the empire; the government, which grants the provinces the right to free self-government and the cities of municipal autonomy, would not impose its architecture where it did not even impose its own civil laws.

Rome took into account local traditions extensively; we distinguish, therefore, in the uniformity of principles, which are, as it were, a seal central government, a number of schools with a distinctly expressed character, that is, an art driven by the same spirit everywhere, but the methods of application of which preserve the imprint of local identity in each country.

In the study of Roman art, therefore, one should first of all distinguish between the following epochs: Etruscan and Greco-Etruscan; Having reached the era when the system of artificial monolithic structures, which is characteristic of the empire, is introduced into architecture, we will have to reckon with the common elements belonging to Roman art in its entirety, and further - with local deviations that subdivide it into schools.

ROMAN BUILDING METHODS
WALLS

On Figure 306 depicted method of constructing capital walls of Roman buildings... Bricklayers put alternating layers of crushed stone and mortar between two claddings of brick or fine material A, using mobile scaffolding as scaffolding, laid on cross-beams made of rough logs.

To connect this crushed stone, there are brick leveling arrays up to 0.6 m in size to the side, as well as cross-pieces of logs cut flush with the wall and remaining in the masonry in the form of opening stones.

In order to avoid uneven settlements that could cause the cladding to tear off from the solid wall, the Romans strove to achieve the proportion of the mortar in the cladding, equivalent to its proportion in the backfill. They either used triangular brick for cladding, which was cheaper than quadrangular and gave a better connection, then they were content with slabs of building stone, which they laid in horizontal rows or obliquely at an angle of 45 °, which Vitruvius very much condemns.

The crushed stone, which was laid in the thickness of the wall, was never mixed with the mortar beforehand. In other words, Roman masonry is not concrete; it is similar to the latter in composition and has almost the same hardness, but completely different from it in the method of preparation.

Temporary formwork is never used for it, and agglomeration by compression was carried out only insofar as the lining itself was stable enough to withstand the tensile forces arising from ramming, that is, mainly in the two cases indicated in Figure 307: when facing with stone B and if the facing (detail C) is laid out in the form of stepped walls.

Filling is carried out in both cases in the form of a real backfill from alternating thick layers of mortar and crushed stone; the latter is impregnated with a solution due to increased tamping. We see in both cases the principle already indicated in relation to the laying of vaults with circles, namely, the striving for maximum costs for temporary auxiliary devices. This reasonable prudence manifests itself again in the vaults on mortar and guides all the constructive methods of the Romans.

VALUES IN SOLUTION

Arrays and mounts.- As mentioned above, the vault is nothing more than an overhanging continuation of the straight wall that carries it. Rows of crushed stone and mortar, both in the vault itself and in straight supports, are invariably laid horizontally. We never see layers here in the radial direction, as in masonry. The vault is a block-like massif with natural layers, in which a huge notch has been carved. Concentric masonry would overly complicate the work, often done by forced labor, and the Romans resolutely abandon such a system.

Laying of such a massif could only be carried out on a rigid support, incapable of deformation and, apparently, requiring large expenses. The rigidity of the form itself was all the more necessary because the slightest deflection of the circle could cause a rupture, and, consequently, the death of the entire structure, since the strength of the massif was due to its monolithic structure. A prerequisite for the construction of these vaults is the perfect intactness of their arc.

The merit of the Romans was the ability to harmonize the requirements of a rigid form with a minimum expenditure on forests. They achieved this by the following methods. Instead of erecting circles, capable of withstanding the entire weight of the huge mass that forms the vault, the latter is dismembered into a solid frame and filling mass. The material for the frame is fired brick, which is lightweight and gives extraordinary resistance. The skeleton thus turns into a simple skeleton of bricks or a kind of openwork vault. It exerts almost no pressure on the circles, which it replaces after its completion in order to take on the load of the filling arrays, with which it merges as the building is erected.

An openwork brick frame sometimes forms a continuous network on the inner side of the cladding. Usually it is reduced, on the basis of economic considerations and the desire for greater lightness, to a number of openwork, not connected with each other arches ( Figure 308, A). Individual arches are often replaced ( Figure 308, B) a solid fastening of flat-laid bricks, enclosing a circle like a vaulted flooring. For this shell, very large samples of bricks are taken (0.45 m and even 0.6 m to the side), which are bonded with gypsum, and the seams of the shell are reinforced with a second layer of brick slabs.

For very large spans, double brick decks are made. Decks of this kind form a curved arch and are extremely durable. In Italy, especially in Rome, vaulted ceilings are still being erected using such flat-laid bricks. However, this light structure would have seemed too fragile to the ancient Romans, and they only used it as a support for the cast massif during its construction.

Judging by the techniques of modern Roman masons, it can be assumed that the Romans erected them directly without circling, according to the diagram on Figure 309... Laying begins at the same time from all four corners and is gradually advanced in a checkerboard pattern. Each brick is supported on both sides by the strength of the mortar; gradual shading and sequential numbering make it possible to trace these stages of masonry according to the scheme.

There is no doubt that the Romans used this method for vaults of ordinary sizes. For very large spans, such as in the baths of Caracalla, the support for the flooring anchorages was, in all likelihood, very light circles.

Above the spans of window openings, light relief arches were made in the thickness of the wall, which, at first glance, could have been erected without circling, but the Romans would never have made this mistake, which deprives the unloading system of its significance. All unloading arches were erected in circles and subsequently filled with masonry. In the Pantheon, there is still a vaulted flooring, along which arches were folded.

The main types of mortar vault.- On Figure 310 two types of fastenings are indicated for the spherical and cruciform vaults. They are very difficult for masonry, but they are erected using a backbone almost as easily as a corrugated vault; no wonder they are becoming more and more numerous as the system of monolithic buildings spreads.

The greatest vault left to us by the Romans vault of the Pantheon, is a dome; in the so-called Baths of Agrippa there is a spherical niche on fastenings made of meridian arches (B); huge the halls of the thermal baths of Diocletian and Caracalla are covered with cross vaults, some of which have diagonal bracing (A), while others have flat bricks (C).

The use of fasteners was the most effective means of simplifying construction; however, one should not think that it was widespread.

This resolution of the problem certainly predominates only in the Roman Campaign. It is systematically applied in Rome and dominates only in the city itself and its environs. This system is already disappearing as it moves north of Verona and stops south of Naples. Amphitheater in Capua is, apparently, the southern limit of its distribution.

We would have looked in vain for this system in Gaul; The Gallo-Roman vaults of the Parisian baths were erected, like Roman vaults, in regular rows, but no attachment passes between the massif and the circles. The only equivalent of anchorage recognized in Gaul is the thin stone shell that covers the circle and acts as a vaulted deck. thermal bath of Caracalla (aqueduct at Frejus, amphitheater in Senta and etc.).

In Africa, vaults were often erected from hollow pottery pipes; the latter can be laid, due to their extraordinary lightness, without auxiliary supports. These techniques were later used by Byzantine architecture. In the eastern regions of the empire, we meet, finally, the Persian system of construction with vertical sections, which gained predominance in the Byzantine era.

Aqueduct at Eleusis, underground part propylaea Appia, resembles the Asian vaults in all its details; under the Roman walls that enclose the temple in Magnesia, there is a vault erected in vertical sections without circling. This system has dominated Constantinople since the time of Constantine.

The sail arch is almost unknown to Rome. As the only timid attempt at such a vault, one can point to the vault in thermal baths of Caracalla... Its location shown on Figure 311, testifies to the extraordinary inexperience of the builders.

It does not have the geometric shape of a spherical triangle, but is a semblance of a monastery arch of the vault, spreading out along a continuous concave plane with a vertical seam corresponding to the edge of the recessed corner. This is only a single and very imperfect case of using sails and, in all likelihood, is nothing more than an inept imitation of some oriental model.

In order to see the pronounced vault on the sails, it is necessary to travel to the Roman East, where it appears already from the 4th century BC. and is found both in the most ancient cisterns of Constantinople, and in the basilica in Philadelphia. The vault on the sails became the predominant element of architecture there in the era of the Byzantine Empire.

SUPPORTS OF ARCHES

The cast vault is, whatever the methods of its construction, an artificial monolith, and, as such, it cannot overturn its supports without breaking. Theoretically, we can assume the presence of a vault that does not develop lateral expansion and is held, like a metal arch, solely by the action of elastic forces developing in its mass. But in fact, simultaneously with the compression, which the masonry resists, inevitably there is a lateral thrust, which it does not resist well.

Tensile forces are prevented ( Figure 312) by the fact that the vault is pushed in between the compression ailerons, which look like modern buttresses, but never protrude from the inner surface of the wall. They are a kind of internal support organs. Example on Figure 312 borrowed from the system of construction of the large vaulted nave Basilica of Maxentius, completed under Constantine. Its central nave is covered with a cross vault on pillars, which are eperons E, connected in pairs by vaults V.

To destroy the thrust of a giant hemispherical domes of the Pantheon the drum that carries it serves ( Figure 313). This drum is lightened, regardless of the voids in the mass itself, by deep niches, communicating, as in space S in Figure 312, with the interior of the central room, of which they seem to be an appendage. Separate parts of buildings with more complex plans were grouped by the Romans with great care, so that the walls of one part served as supports for the adjacent vaults. They unswervingly strive to satisfy all the requirements of balance, without resorting to the construction of inert masses, which would only play the role of buttresses. The plan of the baths of Caracalla, which will be given below, serves as a vivid example of such a balanced arrangement of arrays of vaulted rooms. The idea is the same everywhere: calmly take on the implementation of grandiose plans due to the maximum savings both on the elements of supports and on ancillary structures.

WOODEN PARTS AND SMALL CONSTRUCTION PARTS

Roman vaults were never protected by roofs; they were directly covered with tiles, which were given a slope to ensure the drainage of rainwater. The Romans did not see the point in a room under the roof of a vault, which itself is a ceiling; thus, Roman buildings are covered with either vaults or rafters.

Wooden structure

Rafters.- Roman rafters represent a significant advance over previous structural systems. The Greeks knew only the rafters with the transfer of the load to the girders, and we have already mentioned above what careful carpentry finishing this system required and how much it made it difficult to cover significant spans.

The Romans introduced tightening trusses, in which the weight of the roof is converted by the rafter legs into tensile forces; puffs reduce the latter to zero. The French word "arbaletrier" (bowed bow), used for the rafter leg, perfectly expresses the nature of the new structural system; in the Greek rafters, only vertical forces acted, while the new system works thanks to the girder, which becomes a draw like a drawn bow.

The wooden floors of Ancient Rome have finally disappeared, but we have the opportunity to restore them according to the tradition of Christian Rome. Preserved measurements of the ancient church of st. Petra, founded by Constantine, and “St. Paul Outside the Walls ”, built by Honorius. These ceilings, renewed farm after farm as they deteriorated, carry us, like links in an unbroken chain, to the times of the Roman Empire.

All trusses follow one common and uniform system ( Figure 314, B); the roof rests on two rafter legs embedded in a puff, the latter being lightened, in turn, in the middle by a grandmother, which is not stable, as in Greek architecture, but a real hanging grandmother, as in modern rafters. The trusses are usually connected in pairs, so that the roof is not supported by a series of evenly spaced individual trusses, but rather by a series of paired trusses. Each such pair of rafters has one common headstock. The antiquity of this system of construction is confirmed by the bronze rafters that have come down to us in the portico of the Pantheon, which belongs to better times Roman Empire. Their common features are preserved in Serlio's sketches.

Rafters of the Pantheon had a curved girder that served as a tightening (A). In addition, the only way to interpret Vitruvius' instructions regarding long span trusses is to view these trusses as consisting of two rafter legs ( capreoli), which are embedded in a tightening ( transtrum).

Only combinations based on the use of tightening made it possible to cover huge spans of Roman buildings, reaching, for example, in Basilica of Trajan 75 feet, and in Basilica Fano- 60 feet.

It should be noted that the use of oblique ties is extremely rare. The rafters of the Pantheon are barely broken into triangles, in the temples of St. Peter and St. Paul Outside the Walls ”there are no sling, no farms under the ridge. It is felt that the Romans have not yet freed themselves from the influence of the Greeks, for whom the wooden floors were nothing more than a transposition of the masonry system onto the wood.

The Roman builders took the greatest care in preventing fires. The gaps between the rafters of the church "St. Paul outside the walls "( Figure 314, C) are filled not with flammable battens, but with a flooring of large bricks, on which the tiles are laid. In order to prevent the fire from spreading from one slope to another, a stone wall C was erected along the ridge, which served as a diaphragm.

Similar precautions were taken at the theater in Orange: the walls there rise above the roof and can, if necessary, stop the spread of fire (Figure 292).

Finally, we find in Syria examples of roof rafters, where the roof is interrupted at certain intervals by tympanes on the arches, replacing the rafters and serving as an obstacle to the spread of fire ( Figure 315).

Bridge trusses.- We must mention two bridges among the wooden structures of the Romans: Caesar's bridge on the Rhine and Trajan's bridge on the Danube. Rhine bridge was built from beams on rows of inclined piles. The advantage of this system was that the beams "were pressed against the piles, the stronger the current was." The build system was of great interest to researchers.

Farms Trajan's bridge are known to us from the models and bas-reliefs of the Trajan's Column. It was arch bridge; three concentric arches were pulled together by hanging braces. On Figure 316 shown in dotted lines are parts that seem to need to be added to the schematic in Trajan's Column.

The Danube Bridge restored in this way resembles in all respects the triple arch trusses preserved in the monuments of India. Appolodor, the builder of this bridge, was from Damascus, which lies on the way to India. Didn't he have any information about this type of Asian construction?

Use of metal for farms.- We have already pointed out the use of walls and the use of bricks as purlins as a way to fight fires. An expensive means of completely eliminating the danger from fire, which, however, did not stop the Romans, was the replacement of wood with metal. The rafters of the most important buildings, such as the Ulpia Basilica or the Pantheon portico, are made of bronze. The trusses of the Pantheon do not deviate in the sense of the drawing from the wooden structure, but the cross-section of the parts is quite consistent with the use of metal; they are box-shaped ( see section S in Figure 314) and are made of three bolted bronze sheets.

It can apparently be considered established that Big hall The cold baths in the thermal baths of Caracalla also had a roofed terrace lying on T-beams. Thus, the Romans were ahead of us in the rational profiling of metal parts.

Roof.- Roofs were usually made of tiles or marble according to Greek patterns. In addition, the Romans sometimes used plate copper ( Pantheon) or lead (the temple at Puy-de-Dome), and, finally, we meet on various sculptural monuments, such as tomb of the Julians at Saint-Remy, depictions of fish-scale roof tiles, such as that which the Greeks covered their circular buildings, and which undoubtedly had the same type on the inside as the modern flat roof tiles.

LIGHTWEIGHT CONSTRUCTIONS

Roman architecture is not limited to the great works of official architecture. We too willingly pay attention only to the latter, and meanwhile, along with the magnificent official architecture that amazes us, there was also private architecture in full, which deserves at least a brief mention.

Before the era of Vitruvius, the walls of Roman houses were built exclusively from raw bricks, broken clay or wood. While for public buildings monolithic masonry was used, for private buildings they were still content with traditional walls made of dried clay or rather rough masonry of poorly hewn stone, smeared with lime mortar. Masonry of building stone on lime mortar, which became widespread in the Middle Ages, thus comes from the private architecture of the Romans.

We find in Pompeian houses not the concrete vaults common in large buildings, but ceilings laid out in an arc of a circle, which increases their stability. We see from the image on Figure 317 that the frame of the building is made of reeds, the gaps between which are filled with reed weaving, plastered from the inside.

The Romans were also familiar with double walls, which provide excellent protection against dampness and extreme fluctuations in temperature; an example of them is the villa of Hadrian and various buildings adjacent to the earthen embankments.

DIVISION OF LABOR IN ROMAN CONSTRUCTION

Let's sum up the monumental architecture of the Romans. If in the details of constructive methods their characteristic spirit of economy is manifested, then in the general distribution of labor their organizational genius shows through: the methodical distribution of duties has never reached such a level.

For each type of work, there was a special workshop of workers with certain qualifications and traditions, and a careful study of large architectural monuments convinces us of the systematic division of labor between these work shifts, which had a delimited special appointment... So, for example, we see at the head of the walls Colosseum (Colosseum) that the rows of cut stone are not associated with the masonry filling them. The relationship between the two, although desirable from a sustainability point of view, would make the work of masons dependent on masons; therefore, communication is sacrificed to the obvious advantage of a precise division of labor.

This system is especially vividly expressed when decorating the body of buildings: There are an extremely small number of structures, such as the Pantheon, in which the columns were installed simultaneously with the erection of the walls; usually, the decorative parts were prepared during the laying of the walls and installed later, which gave a great advantage in terms of speed of construction.

The Greeks decorate buildings by processing the architectural parts themselves; for the Romans, however, this is only a surface facing. The Romans first erect a building, then marble is hung on the walls with the help of brackets, or they are covered with a layer of plaster. This method is inevitable in architecture, where the structure of the massif does not lend itself to artistic treatment, but it had the most sad consequences from a purely artistic point of view.

The habit of the Romans to consider separately the decoration and construction of buildings inevitably led to the fact that they began to consider these factors completely independent of each other. The decoration gradually evolved into arbitrary decoration, and the division of labor, which provided such valuable services to the regular course of work, seems to hasten more than any other cause the downfall of Roman art by perverting its forms.

OUTDOOR DECORATION

In their contemptuous indifference to everything that had nothing to do with world domination, the Romans seemed to deliberately seek to renounce their rights to distinctiveness in architecture; they themselves present their architecture to us as a simple borrowing from Greece or as a luxury item, and they treated the works of this art as fashionable trinkets.

In fact, the Romans had, especially during the republic, a completely original and great architecture... She was distinguished by her inherent imprint of grandeur or, in the words of Vitruvius, "significance", the influence of which even the Athenians felt when they summoned an architect from Rome to build a temple in honor of Olympian Zeus.

Elements of Roman decorative art, like the entire civilization of the Romans, have a twofold origin: they are associated with both Etruria and Greece. Roman architecture as a whole is a mixed art; it combines forms derived from the Etruscan dome with the ornamental details of the Greek architrave; Etruria gave the Romans the arch, Greece the warrants.

Auguste Choisy. History of architecture. Auguste Choisy. Histoire De L "Architecture